Centrum Glacies 2022 Session 39: Who is REDACTED?
Week 39 in 2022 of this Dungeons and Dragons Campaign in Centrum Glacies goes way off into cosmic horror. Who is REDACTED?
Like my other campaign, I’m turning this one into a book series. However I’m still working on that project. Give it some time.
Anyway, just like my other campaign, there is a whole lot going on and I don’t want to elaborate on every moving piece in the story. You can see the whole thing once the book series starts hitting virtual and real shelves.
!!!Trigger Warning!!!
This story deals with a cruel world with some horrific twists. So far, this campaign has featured: Animals getting killed, Genocide, lots of body horror, evil cults, brainwashing, torture.
Most recently one of the party members had an eye gouged out and lost an arm. Not exactly the way it happens in Berserk, but that might have been the inspiration for it. The group at large is currently succumbing to magical wounds that appear to be turning them into Demons.
!!!Final Trigger Warning!!!
The party minus Trent arrived at Zerruz. On the outskirts, they were scared they would need to fight again. After all several Orcs were waiting for them and the last time they had been in this courtyard one of the Platinum Adventurers had tried to kill them.
Unfortunately, trouble did come, but not because of the Orcs hostility. Rather Teztcal left a bad first impression and got sealed in a box for misbehaving. He had some weird God Complex that convinced him that the Orcs served him. Something they didn’t like.
Without their new companion, Jyona, Malcolm and Adrenne returned to the market place where outsiders normally spent their time in Zarruz. They found Trent and between them all, there was much to discuss.
In the inn Trent talked to the Orc Matron about the fire caves. Turned out the Orcs were well aware of the Cult Of Obsidian’s massive network. This was one of the main reasons she needed to set the teleportation network up.
Unfortunately, Teztcal still had the device to active the teleporter. And he was trapped in that box. Probably unwilling to part with it at this point too.
Eldritch Entrance:
But their problems only got much worse when something wicked came. The monster that called itself Hashim appeared in the inn and scared Trent and Malcolm. With its cryptic words, they knew it was targeting one of their allies.
But which one? Did they go check on Teztcal even though he was annoying them? And there was REDACTED too. They hadn’t recovered from their encounter with the Platinum Adventurer.
Oh, and in all the chaos, another of their many enemies appeared in Zerruz. Turned out Faxina was still looking for REDACTED. As usual when she appeared, she went on rampage. The Orcs managed to protect themselves from her, but Jyona was not so lucky.
The poor woman was already at the top of Faxina’s kill list out of perceived jealousy. And the Demon was much stronger than her. Jyona’s life flashed before her eyes as Faxina was moments away from gouging out her other eye.
With everything now going on, things reached a head when time itself stopped for almost everyone. The world grew cold and silent. But this had the side effect of letting Teztcal out of his prison. And since he wasn’t stopped in time, he wanted away from this place.
Teztcal tried to flee and he had the teleportation stone. Frustrated at how much trouble this object was causing, he tried to throw it away. And when that didn’t work, he tried to smash it. But the thing kept appearing in his hands and wouldn’t be destroyed no matter what he did.
Erasure:
But there was no escape for the Dragon. Hashim was everywhere and nowhere. And had all sorts of unexplained powers. With Teztcal in tow, the legion of faceless creatures took him back towards Zerruz.
Hashim appeared in city center and attacked REDACTED by stealing their face. The party had seen the aftermath of this sort of attack before, but never had gotten a front row seat. The Creature said something about how that one was unable to play their role and vanished. Time restarted and the party was even more confused than before.
Who was REDACTED? Why had Hashim attacked them? And most importantly, why had it wanted the party to see it attack REDACTED?
Faxina stopped for a moment, screamed about having no idea why she was here, and vanished. The party is worried about running into her again, but couldn’t remember what she had been so angry about.
The memory confusion continued when moments later Trent, Malcolm, Jyona, and Adrenne were pulled into the Platinum Adventurer space. Another Platinum Adventurer had died… allegedly. No one, include the Guild Hive Mind had any idea who. But the party had an inkling that it had to do with the faceless body in Zerruz.
Malcolm had figurine of a person without a face. And wondered why he had made it when they returned from the Guild meeting. What did Hashim do? And what does it mean for the group moving forward.
Wrap Up:
They have Jarrar to deal with, and the party doesn’t trust Teztcal. And if the infighting continues, they might not be able to defeat the Cult of Obsidian or the several Platinum Adventurers that continue to try hunting them.